Troy made the helo the next day and met me at our hotel. The
view out that 16th floor window is unforgettable. Pristine, white
sand beach sparsely dotted with what look like red, green, blue and yellow
mushrooms. The beach umbrellas are removed each night and reinstalled the next
morning by the next wave of eager sun worshipers. This stunning, immaculate
beach is not packed. There is plenty of room.
To
the left of the beach about a quarter mile is a tropical hill that slopes
gently to the sea and creates a quiet cove. Out in the distance the shipping
traffic waits patiently to off load. You can also see several oil rigs that
happen to be situated closer to shore. Seabirds wheel overhead, with wingspans
so large that they almost seem like pterodactyls.
There
are police everywhere. It is the strangest site. There they are in their little
blue cars driving around with red lights flashing looking important. In the
middle of the night, when jet lag nags at you, you can stare out the window and
see a car below with red lights blinking for all they’re worth. In 10 days, we
never saw anyone arrested, never saw anyone drunk and never saw a single car
pulled over for anything. Maybe that heavy of a police presence makes that big
a difference. I will say that seldom have I felt as safe as in Rio. You can
walk the streets, the beach and shopping areas and feel at ease. No one seems
afraid or intimidated. The police always walk the side walk by the Copacabana
and Ipanema beaches in pairs in crisp clean uniform shorts with smiling,
friendly faces. Obviously, safety is good for everyone’s business. The only
thing they seem to be powerless to prevent is the staggering volume of ugly
graffiti that unfortunately disgraces far too many buildings.
Once
Troy finally got here, we decided to explore and took the shuttle provided by
the H. Stern jewelry company to their museum and store. H. Stern and Amsterdam
Saur appear to be the two largest jewelers in Rio. They have blanketed the city
with ads. Once at the H. Stern building, we are shown where they find the gems
that Brazil so abundantly mines, and how they cut and facet them. Brazil is all
about precious and semi-precious stones: Amethyst, blue and golden topaz,
Citrine, aquamarine, Brazilian emeralds and green and pink tourmalines. These
jewels of the earth are gorgeous and expensive. The prices at H. Stern and its
competitor were breathtaking. We decided to keep our options open: we bought
nothing.
Actually,
all the prices in Rio were pretty much the same as in San Diego with the
possible exception of gasoline and diesel. I’m not sure why gas is so ‘cheap’
in comparison in the United States, but it is. Think about it. Brazil is
literally swimming in oil and a hug deposit of roughly 34 billion gallons of
crude was discovered off the coast of Brazil while we were there. Brazil does
not export its oil. All the oil that is pumped off it’s coast is returned to
Brazil, yet the price per liter approached $2.40 a liter, which translates into
roughly $10 a gallon for gasoline and diesel was higher. Some locations were as
high as $12 a gallon. Perhaps that was why all the cars were four cylinders and
there were virtually no vehicles like a Ford F 250. It would cost a whole
paycheck to fill it up! Fuel is so expense that in 10 days we saw only stick
shift cars. We saw 1 Mercedes, 3 BMW’s, 1 Ford F150 [it appeared so large and
out of place] and lots and lots of very tiny cars that fit in very tiny places.
Money
is tight here, even though Brazil is booming. The average salary is about
$375.USD a month. That’s the average. High end would be $1250.USD a month. A
tiny apartment in a good neighborhood is roughly $750 USD a month, which is
very high for here. I don’t know the percentage but a large percentage of the
population lives in the Favelas or the stripped down version of slums. These
seem to be a blight on the landscape, because they look so bad, horrible, sad
and depressing. The ghoulish-headed black vultures fly overhead these Favelas
ceaselessly. Yet, even these very poor people are grateful for a place to live.
Rents in the Favelas run around $300-500 USD a month depending on size. Most of
the hotel workers, and street sweepers live in the Favelas. They cram public
transportation. Even still, there is a significant homeless, crippled
population. Obviously, every country has its sociological challenges. However
one of the challenges Brazil doesn’t seem to have is issues with race.
Portugal
claimed the land we know today as Brazil for its King. Slaves were brought over
from Africa to work the land but in roughly 1820, the people of Brazil declared
their independence from Portugal and a war was fought. Finally everyone in
Brazil was free: everyone. Despite a booming slave trade, that financial aspect
stopped and anyone who was living in Brazil at the time instantly became a
citizen. On that fateful day, black, white, native South American all joined together
to form a country with one common language and focus. Brazilians look and speak
the same language racially and sociologically. This country seems to be the
truest melting pot. No one group feels above another or more or less entitled.
Here there are no African or Spanish Americans or Native Americans: here,
everyone is simply Brazilian.
And
all these Brazilians brought a rich heritage from their respective cultures to
bear on the cuisine of this country. The hotels provide breakfast as part of
the cost of your room ($360USD a day). What a breakfast! First of all the
coffee is simply outstanding. There is no menu there is only this generous
breakfast buffet. What do they serve? Where do I start! Fruit: all the fresh
fruit you can imagine, from watermelon, papaya, pineapple, plums, and pears, to
apples grapes, strawberries and mango. Then there is the fresh cut that morning
fruit salad. Next there’s blue cheese, white cheese, luncheon meats and all
types of bread, rolls sticky buns, soft cream filled donut balls rolled in
cinnamon sugar and of course the endless coffee and guava, pineapple, grape and
orange juices. Then, if that weren’t enough, there are scrambled eggs,
sausages, cheeses balls, bacon and some sort of stewed/steamed style of
bananas. You can also have any type of cereal or yogurt. Then there are the breakfast
cakes: chocolate, fruitcake and pineapple upside cake and on and on. If you
don’t want just café with hot milk, you can add several different types of
chocolate to your coffee. It was a good thing we walked sometimes seven hours a
day to see the city!
More next week in part 3
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